Tray for duplicate whist



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umane' STATE-S' PATENT IINEICEo WALTER s. oOLEs, OE CINCINNATI, OnIo.

TRAY FOR DUPLICATE WHIST.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 609,876, dated August 30, 1898.

Application iiled April 19, 189'?.1

To all whom it may concern: l

Be it known that I, WALTER S. CoLEs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton andState of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Trays for Duplicate IVhist, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the holders or trays for the preservation for overplay of the hands in a game of whist; and it consists of a certain novel construction of holder and arrangement of `the cards, to be hereinafter more particularly pointedout and claimed.

In trays or holders forv the playing of duplicate whist as heretofore constructed arrangement has been made for only a single pack of cards divided into the four hands, and the first part of my improvements consists in my arrangement of the cards, whereby two packs of cards with eight hands can be used secured to a single tray.

One of the objections to many of the Whisttrays in use for duplicate whist has been that single trays have had to beV used with each pack of cards, so that when sixteen or twentyfour hands are to be played the number of trays renders the case or package of trays too heavy and cumbersome for convenient transportation, while the wear and tear on the trays in playing the game when each tray has to be twice handled for each hand is also much greater than where a single tray holds two sets of hands.

The second part of my invention consists of the means devised for holding the cards on the tray.

Heretofore in Whist-trays as ordinarily constructed the cards have been held by rubber bands, springs, or in tight-fitting pockets. Vith any of these methods of holding the cards are more or less damaged by the pressure brought to bear on them. The best of rubber bands soon wear out and have to be renewed, and the springs lose their tension, besides'the wearing on the cards when they are left confined in the tray and the tightitting pockets also cause considerable Wear on the hands. vIt is the purpose of my in- Serial No. 632,737. (No model.)

vention in this respect to avoid these objections by providing pockets in which the cards may fit loosely and securing them in place by ribbons, as will be hereinafter pointed out and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of my whist-tray. Fig. 2 isla cross-section of same, taken near one edge, showing one of the packs partly removed.

The tray is preferably made of cardboard or other suitable material Vand consists of a .pocket to the top cover B, at about the center of the pocket, is a ribbon Z7, which passes back around the cards and is provided with a buttonhole c, which is secured over the button don topofthe cover. Of course the ribbon can be' made' of any suitable material, although I prefer binders cloth, which will not unravel and is very durable, and any means for fastening the ribbon can be employed. For convenience, however, I secure the inner end of the ribbon in the inside of the pocket by the same means that I attach the button d or other form of fastener employed.

Vihen the cards are all in the case, the ribbons are of course carried back to the back of the card-compartment, and the ribbon is of such length that the fasteners will just catch, thus holding the cards in the pockets.

In order to remove the cards, all that is necessary to do is to loosen the ribbon and then pull on the same, when the hand will at once be pushed outof the case to be readily grasped by the proper player.

With the two sets of hands, arranged as aboved described, it isof course essential that there should be no confusion, and to avoid any such confusion I stamp the ribbons for the hands which are to be played together with any suitable device, such as the letter IOO A, (shown at e,) and the ribbons by which are secured the other set of hands with another device, such as the letter 13, (shown at F.) When any one set of hands is removed from the tray for playing, the ribbons for the corresponding pockets will lie along the card-table with these letters underneath, while the set of hands which is still in the tray Will be secured by the ribbons, and thek corresponding letter or other device will be directly lbefore the players, and so long as the four devices on the four ribbons, Which confine the cards in the tray and which are the only devices which are in sight of the players, are all the same there can be no confusion in the hands.

In the overplay of the hands it is of course essential that the original score of the play be kept. Consequently the hands must all be numbered, and as it is exceedingly desirable that the score made on the original play of any particular hand should not be known until the duplicate has been played it has been usual to place the number on the bottom of the board, so that the tray has to be turned over to ascertain what hand has been played. In order to avoid the time and annoyance in reversing the'tray, I stamp on the reverse side of the ribbons for each set of hands the number of the hand, selecting, by preference, numbers in irregular order, such as, for the tray shown in the drawings, for the hand A, No. 2, and for `the hand 13,

No. 5, the numbers being chosen in irregular order, so that the number of the next hand' for the tray on the table, while arrows h 7i or other suitable pointers indicate the lead, the leads being indicated in irregular order on the different trays in order to assist the memory as little as possible.

I also prefer to stamp each tray in irregular order with one of the four trumps, as vshown by the diamond Z in Fig. l; but,when desired, any trump may be chosen for the play.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a duplicate-whist tray, acase divided into a series of eight compartments open at the ends and arranged in pairs, with ribbons to pass around the cards and secure same in the case, said ribbons of the corresponding compartments of each pair being marked with the same indicating device, whereby confusion may be avoided in the play of the hands, substantially as shown and described.

2. In a duplicate-whist tray, a case divided into a series of eight compartments open at the ends and arranged in pairs, with ribbons to pass around the cards and secure same in thecase, said ribbons of the corresponding compartments of each pair being marked with a number, to indicate the various hands, substantially as shown and described.

3. In a duplicate-whist tray, a case divided into a series of eight compartments open at the ends and arranged in pairs, with ribbons to pass around the cards and secure same in the case, said ribbons of the corresponding compartments of each pairbeing marked with the same indicating device, and with a number to indicate the various hands, substantially as shown and described.

WALTER S. GOLES.

Witnesses:

H. GATES EDWARDS, GEORGE HEIDMAN. 

